A great teaching tool with a massive list of words frequently confused in terms of meaning, spelling or understanding. Examples include: affect and efffect; their there, and they're, and capital and capitol....over 3,000 in the data base.

There are many miraculous photos from history that have managed to go relatively unseen. For whatever reason, their quality is under-appreciated, despite revealing interesting realities about world history and popular events. Some may surprise you, but all will enlighten you. High profile figures

The students were also perplexed by my new earpiece accessory. "Um, Miss, what’s that in your ear?" they asked. I looked over to the three adults in the far back corner of the room for my scripted answer.

Linda Alexander's insight:

There appears to be two different educational systems in the United States these days--a system for the wealthy children where they're actually encouraged to question authority, debate, move around the classrooms, advocate for themselves and be creative. Yes, school, thus learning, is FUN! The other system, which is steadily growing in popularity, especially within the charter school sector (Phoenix, AZ is a prime example where they flourish), is quite different. Yes, there are notable exceptions in certain pockets of the country, like Cleveland, Ohio where The Intergenerational School & Citizen Leadership Academy--an Expeditionary Learning School--exist. There is also a Reggio Emilia charter in Tucson that is breaking the mold. However, the other model, much more prevalent in the Southwest, doesn't allow for "choice" or student ownership over their own learning. Indeed the day tends to be fairly regimented where scoring high on a few high stake tests (feathers in adult caps) is the primary focus as well an overly scripted discipline system, pedagogy, that dominates every moment. (Anecdotally, supporters of regimented, drill & kill models seem to feel that poor children, beginning in kindergarten, and of every ethnic/cultural group "need discipline". But most of these same folks didn't attend a school like this nor would they send their own children to any of them.) Overall, we are not preparing these children for "college" as many proclaim on their brochures, but turning them into joyless robots. This article presents yet another example of this dreary school model.

American youths are plugged in and tuned out of the real world for many more hours of the day than experts consider healthy for normal development.

Linda Alexander's insight:

The article points out that children need time to play, be creative, process their thoughts, and most importantly interact with the real world. Parents (and some schools) use technology as a babysitter. Given the amount of time each day many children are plugged into games and the TV each day, the real world may end up seeming fake. This is a frightening article....what are we doing to our children?

Excerpted from How to Raise an Adult: Break Free of the Overparenting Trap and Prepare Your Kid for Success by Julie Lythcott-Haims, out now from Henry Holt and Co. Academically overbearing parents are doing great harm. So says Bill Deresiewicz in his groundbreaking 2014 manifesto Excellent Sheep: The Miseducation of...

Linda Alexander's insight:

We all know these parents who sometimes leave lucrative careers in order to "manage" every aspect of their child's school life-- as if a business. It's sad, and their children, ultimately, pay the final price.

Terrific piece--with an eye directed at what's most conducive to student learning. These varying approaches, self-discipline versus more compliant/disciplinary environments are far too often the divide between higher income and lower income school environments (but need not be). What are we preparing our children for in the long term?

I believe your generation will do a better job than mine at fixing the problem of gender inequality. So we turn to you. You are the promise for a more equal world. Great leaders don't just develop people like them, they develop everyone. If you want to be a great leader, develop the women -- as well as the men -- at your companies.

An experiment at Fieldston, which starts when 8-year-olds are sorted by race, has some very liberal parents fuming.

Linda Alexander's insight:

Let me share that I have long considered Fieldstone, an independent school in NY City, a social and intellectual giant in terms of admissions policies & pedagogy. This is a lengthy article that covers white privilege, stereotype threat, and the reasons behind a new affinity group program based on race, “to increase self-esteem and a sense of belonging". Overall, a school would need to be diverse-enough to create the affinity groups. Nevertheless, the parent reactions are quite revealing, and the program goals, in the spirit of the Jane Elliott’s Blue Eyes Brown Eyes, a progressive step forward. If any school can make new headway under the glaze of nervous parents, it’s Fieldstone “Lower". Powerful & thought-provoking.

"With her affinity-group program, Richards hopes to accomplish two things. First, she wants to support the kids of color, because they and their parents have told her they need the help. There are still too many incidents of “microaggressions” at her school: A girl puts her hands in another girl’s hair; a boy asks his Asian friend where he’s really from."

It was an hour after she got home from Vacation Bible School last summer. One hour after Water games! Snow cones! a Slimy Craft! Dancing and Singing! The Best Day Ever! We were in the second week of summer. The second week of sleeping in and she was slipping and sliding towards boredom. Walking around the house, whining …

Ambiverts have introverted and extroverted traits, but neither trait is dominant. As a result, they have more balanced, or nuanced, personalities. They aren’t the folks yammering your ear off. Nor are they the totally silent ones happily ensconced in the corner.

Ambiverts move between being social or being solitary, speaking up or listening carefully with greater ease than either extroverts or introverts. “It is like they’re bilingual,” says Daniel Pink, a business book author and co-host of Crowd Control, a TV series on human behavior, who has studied ambiversion. “They have a wider range of skills and can connect with a wider range of people in the same way someone who speaks English and Spanish can.”

Me me! This is who I really am....neither extreme. I need the social contact, lots of friends and family nearby, but usually prefer to retreat after a good dose of interaction. Indeed I can paint alone for hours or read a good book. My sense is that ambivert fits a lot of personalities...

Ambiverts have introverted and extroverted traits, but neither trait is dominant. As a result, they have more balanced, or nuanced, personalities. They aren’t the folks yammering your ear off. Nor are they the totally silent ones happily ensconced in the corner.

Ambiverts move between being social or being solitary, speaking up or listening carefully with greater ease than either extroverts or introverts. “It is like they’re bilingual,” saysDaniel Pink, a business book author and co-host of Crowd Control, a TV series on human behavior, who has studied ambiversion. “They have a wider range of skills and can connect with a wider range of people in the same way someone who speaks English and Spanish can.”

“Minecraft can help students visualize concepts, work on communication and collaboration skills, foster positive online behavior, [and] differentiate for students who need more than just words in a textbook”

Usually, when we say “American slavery” or the “American slave trade,” we mean the American colonies or, later, the United States. But as we discussed in Episode 2 of Slate’s History of American Slavery Academy, relative to the entire slave trade, North America was a bit player. From the trade’s...

The Southern Poverty Law Center counted 784 active hate groups in the United States in 2014.

Linda Alexander's insight:

While we progress on many fronts, please note this informative map of hate groups by State. For instance, in Bainbridge, Ohio the hate group Aryan Nations is based. I lived close-by at one time and was never aware they existed.

Recent evaluations of the state's preschoolers have determined that only 47 percent are ready for kindergarten, compared to 83 percent judged ready last year. This drastic drop...

Linda Alexander's insight:

I support the "philosophy" of the CC, but not what I'm witnessing in schools, especially at the youngest levels. "Why do we have educational standards that are not aligned with even the most basic facts of human development? Clearly these test results show that the problem is with the standards, not the children. Educational attainment is part of human development, and fundamentally this is a biological process that cannot be sped up". Amen. Period.

If I could wave my magic mama-wand, I'd abolish homework in the lower grades.

Linda Alexander's insight:

Running outside, peering under rocks, racing the neighbor kid to the hose, reading a book together under the covers, and tossing a ball shouldn't get lost....it's "childhood" ....we get to be "adults" far too long...

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